Indian Navy chief Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi on Saturday (August 10) termed the Agnipath recruitment method for the armed forces a “transformative” scheme and said that it gives a golden opportunity to the youths of the country to serve in the forces. He also said that preparedness of the forces is a “continuous process” and noted that the government is extending “a lot of support” in advancing the Navy.
In an Exclusive interview with India TV, the Navy chief said, “Agnipath is a very transformative scheme. It is a golden opportunity for the youths to work in the armed forces of the country and can go to some other profession if they want. The excitement among the Agniveers is the same as it was in the first batch.”
Navy's combat capabilities
When asked about the preparedness of the Navy for any combat challenges, he said that the combat capabilities have increased over the years and with the allocation of significant money in this year’s budget, it will increase further.
“Our preparedness is a continuous process. Our Navy has reached this point today because of the vision and leadership of the 25 Navy chiefs before me. I will take it forward as the 26th chief and we are getting a lot of support from our government in this. We have been allocated a good amount of money in this year's budget. This will benefit our combat capability,” Admiral Tripathi said.
Future weapons in Indian Navy
Talking about the weapons going to be inducted into the Navy in the future, he said, “We are trying to induct Rafale M aircraft into the Navy, talks are also being held for Predator. There are various capability enhancements being done to plug in the weak areas due to the changing warfare and to strengthen it further.”
Earlier in June this year, India and France were holding negotiations for the price and other important issues for the 26 Rafale Marine fighter aircraft deal for the Indian Navy. The talks, which were earlier supposed to be held on May 30 but were postponed to the second week of June apparently in view of the Lok Sabha elections in the country, were being held as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on his first away visit in his third term to Italy to attend the G7 Summit.
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